RealGM

National media isn't taking the Kings seriously just yet. The Kings need to repeat the same (or better) success this year. If the Kings can make it to the playoffs again, more eyeballs will be on the Kings. Recognition will be earned.

I think the West gotten a bit better and opponents have seen the the Warriors' blueprint on slowing down the Kings' offense during the playoffs -- and will try to use it against the Kings. I hope the Kings can make their appropriate adjustments and not get stuck.

KF10 wrote:National media isn't taking the Kings seriously just yet. The Kings need to repeat the same (or better) success this year. If the Kings can make it to the playoffs again, more eyeballs will be on the Kings. Recognition will be earned.

I think the West gotten a bit better and opponents have seen the the Warriors' blueprint on slowing down the Kings' offense during the playoffs -- and will try to use it against the Kings. I hope the Kings can make their appropriate adjustments and not get stuck.

The adjustments are hit open shots, and hit open shots. Going to go back and watch games 3-7 and see how many open looks the Kings missed from Domas hand offs. I would put money on it that it forces the Warriors to adjust and Sabonis' impact looks a lot better, series over.

Brown should have had Sabonis at the top of the 3-point line throughout the offense. Looney wouldn't have been able to just sit in the key. Shooters hit the open shots and if not open get Domas at the top, you can't sag off or just sit on one side with a foot outside of the key. Domas got lost in no man's land too often.

Anyway, Domas will be better this coming season and other teams' defense won't be able to rotate as well as the Warriors. Thinking this team breaks 50 wins, and might even get close to 53-55. That's how much the squad has improved.

Why I say just hit shots. Series should have been over before Curry's incredible game 7. Absolutely brutal shooting and there were definitely enough of these shots that were open.
Games 3-6 Field Goals
Fox 42/96 (.437)
Huerter 14/37 (.378)
Barnes 14/31 (.451)
Murray 20/42 (.476)
Monk 20/51 (.392)
Davion 13/31 (.419)
Lyles 9/25 (.360)

Games 3-6 3pt shooting
Fox 12/35 (.342)
Huerter 5/19 (.263)
Barnes 5/27 (.185)
Murray 12/27 (.444)
Monk 6/19 (.315)
Davion 4/17 (.235)
Lyles 4/15 (.266)

I expect some improvement from us, but also some hiccups due to injuries. Keegan will be the biggest difference, another confident year from Fox, no thumb injury from Sabonis hopefully makes him a reliable mid range shooter. But we also can't discount improvements made from the rest of the west.

Denver got slightly worse losing Brown, but they are who they are. Top of the west.

Memphis got worse/better. Losing JA for 25 is going to get them off to a slow start, but I love the Smart pickup for them. I see play-ins for them.

Phx will be significantly better. A full year of Durant, Beal, solid depth.

Clippers the same but they always come down to health.

GS should be much improved from a chemistry stand point. And I also think CP3 helps them during the regular season, he still makes role players better.

Lakers personally don't see much improvement. But again goes based on AD/Brons health.

Wolves can expect major improvement from Jaden/Ant. Healthy KAT, Full year of Conley.

Pelicans meh, but another team where health is the biggest factor.

OKC is expecting internal improvements from literally everyone. Adding Chet, Micic, Wallace. They will be serious this year.

Dallas with a full year of Luka/Kyrie + addition of Grant + Holmes. They will be back to fighting for a top 5 seed.

Jazz even added Collins who could get back to his old self outside of ATL.


The west is going to be another blood bath. Yes we finished the 3rd seed but we had the best health in the entire league. 5 games out of the play-in. Fox needs to stay closing and Keegan needs to take a big leap or we are at risk of getting passed up by many teams. I've still got PTSD from the last 2 decades. My guess today would be 6th seed around 43-45 wins. Hopefully we can do better.

22 national TV games, up from what, a few last year? https://www.nba.com/kings/news/kings-announce-2023-24-regular-season-schedule#:~:text=Sacramento%20has%2022%20games%20that,2004%2D05%20(30).

the casual fan has Kings fever.

Noel and Queta were waived today which was sort of expected after McGee's deal was reported to be guaranteed. I didn't expect us to carry four centers on the roster. Leaves us with:

Fox-Davion
Huerter-Monk-Jones
Barnes-Duarte-Kessler
Keegan-Lyles-Vezenkov
Sabonis-McGee-Len

Two way - Keon Ellis, Jalen Slawson

We have one more spot available on the 15 man roster and one two-way contract remaining. Sounds like Jordan Ford is definitely getting one of those and part of me hopes it's the two-way and we round out the roster with Cam Payne. That would give us a third unit of Payne-Jones-Kessler-Vezenkov-Len which would be crazy solid.

I know Huerter is streaky, but I fail to see his place on the team moving forward. If Duarte can hit 3s and play defense, and Murray's 2 man game with Sabonis increases, he's such a defensive liability. I thank him for his contribution last season, but I think using him and Barnes for a solid 2way forward would elevate this team to contender status

LightTheBeam wrote:I know Huerter is streaky, but I fail to see his place on the team moving forward. If Duarte can hit 3s and play defense, and Murray's 2 man game with Sabonis increases, he's such a defensive liability. I thank him for his contribution last season, but I think using him and Barnes for a solid 2way forward would elevate this team to contender status

It’s backup SF earning spot minutes (his role). I don’t think him and Barnes are doing anything as a package though, we’d need to input a lot more value

We probably dodged a bullet in trying to get Beal.. that contract, injury prone… Monte has done a lot of things right but he was saved from himself here

BoogieTime wrote:

LightTheBeam wrote:I know Huerter is streaky, but I fail to see his place on the team moving forward. If Duarte can hit 3s and play defense, and Murray's 2 man game with Sabonis increases, he's such a defensive liability. I thank him for his contribution last season, but I think using him and Barnes for a solid 2way forward would elevate this team to contender status

It’s backup SF earning spot minutes (his role). I don’t think him and Barnes are doing anything as a package though, we’d need to input a lot more value

At this point I'm fine with that. If we can find a way to turn Huerter + Barnes + picks into OG. Might require a 3rd team. But I think that team can survive defensively.

Sabonis/McGee
Murray/Lyles
OG/Sasha
Duarte/Monk
Fox/Mitchell

Sasha obviously isn't a traditional 3, so I'd just span out Murray/OG's minutes so one is always in at the 3. But this team is loaded with shooters, has 4 solid defenders, and the only weak defensive spots are 2 guys on the bench

Huerter actually needs to be traded while he still doesn’t have negative value (if he doesn’t already)

BoogieTime wrote:Huerter actually needs to be traded while he still doesn’t have negative value (if he doesn’t already)

He can have stretches where his solid play combined with our Big Three, makes us capable of beating any team in the NBA. He just needs to be managed effectively since his defense is such a concern and he has cold stretches like now. His value is as low as it's likely to be all season. I don't think you can trade him for a good return later if his value is higher because it means he'll be playing better and become indispensable for us. We're talking about our 5th/6th option. We could do far worse than Huerter. It wasn't long ago that guys like Huerter were our 2nd or 3rd option

We now have a 23-24 General Thread. Locking this up